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BEFORE 


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THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON, 


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ON THE 


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SIXTY THIRD ANNIVERSARY 


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OF 


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AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 


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JULY 4, 1839. 


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BY ITERS JAMES AUSTIN. 


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BOSTON: 


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JOHN H. EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER, 


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No. 38 State Street. 


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1839. 




Class. 
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AN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED 



BY REaUEST OF THE CITY AUTHORITIES, 



THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON, 

ON THE 

SIXTY THIRD ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 

JULY 4, 1839. 



BY ITERS JAMES AUSTIN. 



BOSTON: 

JOHN H. EASTBURN, CITY PRINTER, 

No. 18 State Street. 

1839. 



as 74 



< 






CITY OF BOSTON. 



In the Board of Aldermen^ July 8, 1839. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to Ivers J. 
Austin, Esq., for the eloquent and patriotic Oration, delivered by him, be- 
fore the Municipal Authorities, on the fourth instant, being the Anniversary of 
American Independence, and that the Mayor be requested to ask of him, a 
copy for the press. 



Sent down for concurrence. 



Read and concurred. 



SAMUEL A. ELIOT, Mayor. 



In Common Council, July 11, 1839. 



PH. MARETT, President. 



A true copy — Attest, 



S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk. 



ORATION. 



The history of the United States is the record of con- 
stant improvement. 

Wliat has urged this mighty nation onward ? Amidst the 
unceasing vicissitude of human affairs, in sunshine and in 
shade, in tempest and in calm, in danger, trouble and dis- 
tress, amidst the terrific convulsions which have agitated the 
civilized world, what energy has secured to this country a 
continual career of splendid and progressive triumph ? 

The Spirit of Independence ! The earliest, loftiest in- 
spiration of the soul. The source of courage, constancy and 
hope. The spirit which teaches man, his dignity and his 
destiny. The power which developes his moral, his intel- 
lectual and his physical capacities and assimilates him to his 
Creator. The great artificer of human character, the mighty 
controller of. human fate. 

This spirit restrained by religion and directed by law, en- 
lightened by reason and chastened by virtue, is the heredi- 
tary characteristic of the American people. 

It was the spirit of the Pilgrims in their native land. It 
armed them against ecclesiastical domination and dictated 
their charter of religious freedom.* It severed the ties of 

*The "ideal schemes of ecclesiastical policy" which Robert Brown in 
1580 reduced to a system. 

" He maintained, that a society of Christians, uniting together to worship 
" God, constituted a church, possessed of complete jurisdiction in the conduct 
" of its own affairs independent of any other society, and unaccountable to any 



kindred and rationalized the instinct of loyalty. It sought 
abroad the encouragement denied at home. Its prophetic 
vision pierced all future time. In the desolation of a track- 
less ocean it promised them a refuge and a country. It 
battled with the savage and subdued the desert. It protect- 
ed their descendants through the perils of colonial infancy. 
It blazed in the Declaration of the Congress of '76 and burn- 
ed as a beacon fire to gather the patriots of the Revolution. 

It evoked the Federal Constitution out of Confederate 
Chaos as if the spirit of Peace had moved over the turbu- 
lence of passion and by the fiat of Omnipotence had again 
brought light out of darkness. 

It carried the country through its second war for freedom. 
It conquered with Hull and Decatur on the ocean, with 
Brown, with Scott, with Jackson on the land. 

In those recent commotions which swept over the nation 
with the fury of a whirlwind, it endowed our countrymen 
with the energy of self reliance, contended with success 
against despair, and like the giant of the fable acquired new 
strength from every prostration. 

It reanimated commerce which no longer droops like a 
fading flower, but flourishes in the beauty of its primitive 
strength. Hundreds of vessels crowd our ports : wherever 

*' superior ; that the priesthood was neither a distinct order in the church nor 
"conferred an indelible character; but that every man qualified to teach 
" might be set apart for that office by the election of the brethren and by im- 
*' position of their hands ; in like manner, by their authority, he might be dis- 
•* charged from that function and reduced to the rank of a private christian ; 
*' that every person, when admitted a member of a church, ought to make a 
" public confession of his faith, and give evidence of his being in a state of 
*' favor with God; and that all the affairs of a church were to be regulated by 
" the decision of the majority of its members.''^ Robertson^s America, vol. Ath, 
p. 269, 70. 

From this sect a body under Robinson fled to Leyden and subsequently t« 
America. These were the Pilgrims who carried with them what the historian 
calls a " democratical form of government" which " accorded perfectly with 
the levelling genius of fanaticism!" The early memoirs of these men would 
form a curious commencement to the history of New England. 



enterprise can force its way there floats the proud flag of 
American Independence. 

It invigorated credit. That life blood of commerce flows 
with renewed energy through its thousand channels of 
circulation, not with 

" the burning might 



•' Deliriuno gathers from the fever's height," 

but with the uniform pulsation of permanent health. Now 
bounding through its arteries in rich and copious streams, 
carrying substance to each member of the political body ; 
now returning to its source to acquire there regenerated 
freshness for the performance of its duty. At times its reg- 
ularity seems deranged. To day it courses less swiftly on, 
chilled by apprehension of imagined danger. Tomorrow 
the flushed cheek and restless eye will show its power un- 
diminished and attest its rapid career. 

These are the natural vagaries of tumultuous health, the 
fancied indications of disease without the reality. If some 
movements of the great fountain be irregular, no lasting 
malady has fastened itself there. Ossification has not de- 
stroyed its sensibility, nor weakness wholly deranged its 
functions. The subjects of its action have force enough of 
muscle and firmness enough of nerve to apply the constitu- 
tional remedy and effect a cure. 

It removed the incubus of enormous debt. The faith of 
our merchants, which no misfortune can obscure, shone 
brighter in that gloomiest hour which heralded the opening 
dawn. The moneyed institution of the country gifted with 
a giant's form and a monster's power, bore the author of its 
being safely through the scene of desolation. The tie of in- 
terest which binds us to our father land is strengthened by its 
increased respect. If some distant thunder lately rumbled in 
the east, no responsive echo came from its honored shores. 
If some few floating clouds yet speck the northern horizon, 
they cast no shadow beyond the broad ocean between us. 



8 

The national spirit requires not distress to concentrate its 
rays. All departments of American enterprise feel its pow- 
er. In agriculture what wonders it has wrought ! It peoples 
the vast West whose inexhaustible fertility tempts so many 
to seek the treasures of her soil. It sustains the vigor of the 
Middle States where science aids the farmer's skill. The 
sterile land of New England yields to its impulse. It ani- 
mated our legislators, whose wise agricultural policy may yet 
teach the sons of Massachusetts, that fortune need not be 
sought for beyond her own limits. 

In manufactures how mighty its influence ! The im- 
mense capital they employ stimulates to the utmost that na- 
tional industry which is the mainspring of our national 
greatness. 

Wherever the busy hum of manufactures is heard, there 
behold an active, moral, frugal community. Our villages 
present not a mass of human machines, sunk into intellect- 
ual darkness and worn out by constant toil for scanty remu- 
neration ; but the offspring of freemen, whose labor is quick- 
ened by the certainty of liberal reward and whose minds are 
enlightened by the benevolent efforts of public instruction. 

From this unfailing fountain flow fertilizing streams 
through all sections of the country. In its immediate neigh- 
borhood behold a dense and perpetually augmenting popu- 
lation. Behold in abundance the necessaries, the comforts, 
and even the luxuries of life. Mark how dwelling rises after 
dwelling, as if the genius of the lamp had lent his magic to 
the work. Behold cities where yesterday tiie wind howled 
through a desert and terror never drove the wild fox from 
his lair. 

View its distant operation. See agriculture every where 
yield to its gentle but resistless power. The new demands 
it creates for the riches of the soil, require an increased 
supply, and the wilderness parts with its domain to the em- 
pire of cultivation. Each department of human labor is 
connected with every other. Each urges the rest, as each 



wave of the sea or undulation of the air agitates its mass. 
But in civiHzed industry the strongest impetus is derived 
from manufactures. 

They till our soil ; build up our marine ; raise our cities ; 
develope the national ingenuity and send it soaring to the 
skies or diving deep into the hidden recesses of nature's 
storehouse ; sharpen the intellect, refine the virtue of the 
people and secure the respect of the world. 

Does the spirit of Independence animate the American 
mechanic ? Go to the scene of his labor. Let his untiring 
perseverance and successful industry answer the question. 
What has perfected our mechanical art ? What has caused 
it in all departments to equal, in most to excel the vaunted 
productions of foreign skill ? Personal, natural, original In- 
dependence, which neither the paralysing pressure of pri- 
vate distress, nor the calamitous consummation of executive 
experiment, has been able to discourage. 

The dock and the ship-yard ; the private and the public 
building, the ponderous machine and the delicate fabric, 
whatever ministers to convenience or comfort attest the me- 
chanic's preeminence. Old Faneuil Hall never in its proud- 
est days, shone with more radiant beauty, than when the 
thousand products of his genius were gathered within its 
walls. The glory of that occasion, yet fresh in the memory 
of New England, is destined to fade before the increased 
splendor of the kindred spectacle which awaits us. 

Who is more ready to maintain the law by the influence 
of his example, or if need be, to enforce obedience by the 
strength of his arm ? Whose charity is more enlarged ? 
Whose benevolence more active ? Whose enterprise more 
daring? In youth should poverty oppose and temptation 
assail him, should he have no friend but the stoutness of his 
heart and no reliance but the Providence of his God ; diffi- 
culties vanish before the independence of his soul : respect- 
ed in manhood and revered in age, he stands a memorial of 



10 

the power of the national spirit, in that noblest of its works 
— a self-made man. 

Trace the power of the national energy in works of pub- 
lic improvement. Each State has its rail-roads. Some just 
produced by the creative faculty of local legislation. Others 
in the full career of success. In all directions these miracles 
of modern genius send forth their winged messengers of 
union and peace. Let them multiply without limitation. 
Let them continue to set torrents at defiance and to laugh 
at the valleys' depth ; to pierce the firmness of the solid 
rock, and to say to the mountain " Be thou removed and 
" cast into the sea." Each bar of iron they fasten to the 
earth, is another link in that national net-work which 
neither internal commotion nor foreign assault can ever 
rend asunder. 

Behold the Empire State, which, sixty years since, num- 
bered fewer inhabitants within her whole territory than are 
now gathered within her commercial capital, incurring a 
debt exceeding the late surplus revenue of the nation, and 
glorying in nearly a thousand miles of canal and more 
than a thousand miles of rail-road. See Pennsylvania and 
Ohio intersected with the same noble works : Indiana re- 
ceived amongst us less than a generation since, expending 
twenty-one millions of dollars in their construction ; and Illi- 
nois, still a younger sister, scarcely behind the foremost. 

Behold the South, just awaking from her long lethar- 
gy. See her struggling against the dead weight of domestic 
slavery and striving to build up her maritime importance. 
May her most sanguine expectations be more than realized. 
The North finds no cause for jealous apprehension in this 
convulsive eflfort. Let commerce divide her capital with 
the great staples of her climate, if such be the dictate of wis- 
dom. The North founds not its prosperity on the depression 
of the South. Her best success can never cause one North- 
ern sail the less to flutter in the breeze, nor stop the music 
of a single spindle. Let her build her rail-roads and stretch 



n 

their iron arms deep into the exhaustless reservoirs of the 
West. Its measureless riches roll not in a single channel, but 
spread like the mighty Nile, which spurns the narrow bounds 
of its natural banks, and overflows whole regions with fer- 
tility and joy. 

The energy of the national spirit is not confined to such 
gigantic works. The less imposing but more important in- 
stitutions of learning, from the rich university to the mod- 
est primary school, through every intermediate gradation, 
proclaim its operation. The universal diffusion of education, 
while it tends to consolidate government, excites the latent 
talent of the country, which displays itself in numberless in- 
ventions or seeks perpetuity in the products of the press. 
To the insatiable thirst for knowledge which characterizes 
our countrymen, the press owes its ascendancy and the in- 
fluence it exerts. This year completes the second century 
since the first printing machine was established on the north- 
ern continent. Although its first fruits were of small impor- 
tance and although it was not until nearly sixty-five years 
afterwards that the first newspaper was committed to the 
world, and though for a hundred years more these had in- 
creased to only half a dozen feeble prints throughout the 
entire extent of the colonies, yet now more than twelve 
hundred presses send forth their annual millions of living 
sheets. Newspapers rank amongst the necessaries of life, 
swaying mind, morals and manners. This prodigious fecun- 
dity springs from the intelligence of the people fostered by 
universal education, and is an eloquent proof of that nation- 
al prosperity created by national Independence. 

Time would fail were the effects of this spirit fully traced. 
Perceive its power in the numberless charitable institutions 
every where shining in the pure radiance of Christian be- 
nevolence. In the flourishing villages of each State rising 
like the spring flowers after the early rain. In the calm- 
ness of the country, in the bustle of the city. In com- 
merce winging her flight across the great deep or stretching 



12 

far over land into the midst of our frontier neighbors on the 
West. Hear it in the clank of our workshops ; see it sparkle 
in the products of their skill. It sings in the thousand spin- 
dles of manufactures; is heard in the deep caverns of the 
mine. View it in the restless migration of the people who 
throng the car, the stage, and the steamboat. In these won- 
derful engines, tiie giant steamboats, more numerous on the 
bosom of the broad Mississippi alone, than in the whole con- 
tinent of Europe, behold another of its mighty efforts. 

What prophetic eye shall pierce the future and foretell 
the limits of its power? Already the Union has realized 
the patriarch's prediction, " Joseph is a fruitful bough, 
" even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over 
" the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot 
''at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, 
" and the arms of his hands were made strong by the 
" hands of the mighty God of Jacob : even by the God of 
" thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty who 
" shall bless thee with blessings of Heaven above, blessings 
"of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and 
" of the ivomb : The blessings of thy father have prevailed 
" above the blessings of his progenitors, unto the utmost 
*' bounds of the everlasting hills ; they shall be on the head 
" of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was 
" separate from his brethren.'' 

No imagination can exaggerate the future glory of this 
country, if faithful to itself. Within its borders are all pro- 
ductions of the soil, in boundless profusion. Every variety 
of climate has capacity for all species of agricultural wealth. 
The earth hides within its bosom mineral riches, the extent 
of which defies calculation. The mind is bewildered by 
the rapidity of population, which yet lies only scattered over 
the unlimited West. Before the resistless progress of civili- 
zation, barbarism disappears like the winter snow before the 
advancing spring. New States rise into political life, im- 
perishable monuments of the wisdom of our system. One 



13 



government unites them into one nation, one interest binds 
them together, the generous inspiration of a common spirit 
animates the whole. 

" Aggredere, 6 magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores, 
" Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum ! 
" Aspice, convexo nutantem pondere mundum, 
" Terrasque, tractusque maris, ccelumque profundum, 
"Aspice venture la;tentur ut omnia sseclo." 

American ingenuity what shall fetter? Endless combina- 
tions of matter are yet undiscovered. The power of steam 
is only in its childhood. Science already points to the sub- 
tleties of nature. She calls upon us to write her story in 
letters of living fire ; to gather in the lightning and chain it 
to our cars. New inventions daily challenge admiration. 
If some savor of romantic enthusiasm and now seem more 
like the "melancholy madness of poetry" than the sober 
aspirations of philosophy, so appeared all startling discover- 
ies before use had familiarized their wonders. Let no one 
despise novelty because its principles are obscure, nor con- 
demn the offspring of ingenuity because its aspect is strange. 
The impossibility of yesterday becomes the well known 
agent of to day, the mighty machines of this generation will 
yield to their mightier rivals of the next. Human genius 
is here unclogged by antiquated customs, urged onward by 
the spirit of Independence and retarded by no superstitious 
reverence for the follies of the past " the range of the moun- 
" tains is its pasture, and it searcheth after every green 
" thing'' in the field of knowledge. 

Yes, within our own borders he the elements of our 
greatness physical or mental. Why should we care were an 
ocean of fire to surround us, securing us in the safety of 
solitary grandeur ? Even then should this nation obey the 
energy within it, like those bright worlds which roll self bal- 
anced, self propelled in space. 

Such are the results of the Spirit of Independence. For 



14 

these we venerate the men who gave the first impulse 
to its power. For these we revere the Statesmen who 
pubhshed the charter of Imman hberty ; who pledged " their 
" lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" to maintain it. 
To these we owe the unobstructed splendor of the na- 
tional spirit. Colonial vassalage could only obscure, but 
could not extinguish it. The eye of their faith pierced the 
mists which mantled it. The lightning glare of power 
could not dazzle their gaze on its unfading brightness. The 
bolt of tyranny might lay them prostrate on the earth ; but 
they knew that 

" Freedom's battle once begun. 



" Bequeath'd by bleeding Sire to Son, 
" Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

Ignominy and shame might be their portion. The min- 
ions of royalty might point with scorn at their tombs, and 
the tears of their children freshen the grass about their 
graves, in bitter lamentation over their failure. They brav- 
ed this misery. Their hopes of fame, the natural longing 
of their souls for an honorable page in their country's 
story, were all pledged on the altar they erected to the 
Spirit of Independence. 

" The very gale their names seems sighing : 

" The wraters murmur of their name ; 

" The woods are peopled with their fame ; 

" The silent pillar, lone and gray, 

" Claims kindred with their sacred clay ; 

" Their spirits wrap the dusky mountain, 

" Their memory sparkles o'er the fountain, 

" The meanest rill, the mightiest river 

" Rolls mingling with their fame for ever." 

Wiiile we remember the heroes of the revolution and thank 
m grateful adoration, that beneficent Being wlio " taught tiieir 
" hands to war and their fingers to fight," let not their radi- 



15 

ant glory hide those other stars, whose influence was not less 
potent because it operated silently. Wives and mothers, 
sisters and daughters, had their part to perform in the strug- 
gle. They performed it nobly. Not in weary watching on 
the field, nor in anxious hours of prolonged debate, were their 
lofty souls, their unquailing courage and unblenching firm- 
ness shown, but beside the bed of the wounded soldier, in 
the hopeless hour of captivity, when his pride was crushed 
by poverty, his spirit broken by misfortune, woman, like an 
angel of mercy, ministered her consolations of kindness. 
" The tender and delicate woman, which would not adven- 
" ture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicate- 
"ness and tenderness,", heeded no fatigue, regarded no 
danger. She visited the loathsome prison, there to lighten 
the fetters which she might not break. Her hand bandaged 
the broken limb, her sympathy sustained ihe sinking mind, 
while with silent eloquence sparkled in her eye, 

" The tear most sacred, shed for others' pain, 

" That starts at once— bright— pure— from Pity's mine, 

" Already polish'd by the hand divine !" 

In the horrors of that gloomy year, when the soldiers' 
bleeding feet crimsoned their tracks upon the snow, when 
famine fastened its fangs upon the body and despair weigh- 
ed lead-like on the heart, woman hesitated at no sacrifice 
to alleviate their hardships. When the withering convic- 
tion of injustice pressed upon their minds, she reanimated 
their decaying patriotism and sent them forth again to con- 
quer or to die. In the most hopeless period of that bitter 
' strife, when the strongest mind began to bend and the stout- 
est heart to quail, women was ever 

" The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, 
" And tints tomorrow with prophetic ray." 

Invaluable as the labors of our early Statesmen are grate- 



16 

fully acknowledged to be, their sacrifices would avail us 
nothing, the tears and sighs of the widow and orphan would 
reach us only as the mournful dirge of withered hopes, if 
another revolution, equal in glory to that of '76, had not 
followed in its train. It would be a problem yet undeter- 
mined, and still perhaps to be solved in characters of blood, 
whether America had done well in shaking off its yoke, 
whether she had increased the aggregate of human happi- 
ness by her demonstration of human rights, if the Federal 
Constitution had not started into being, out of the chaos 
succeeding the war of Revolution. 

There behold the concentrated rays of the Spirit of Inde- 
pendence. The great centre around which revolve these 
western planets : which preserves to each its appropriate 
orbit : which dissipates the darkest clouds that can hover 
about them. Which illuminates all with the splendor of its 
light and animates them with the energy of its power. 

" that with surpassing glory crown'd 

*' Looks from its sole dominion like the God 
"Of this new world." 

Let no star shoot madly from its sphere and " run law- 
'' less through the sky" and this great assemblage, which 
fifty years since first assumed its majesty of form, shall for- 
ever move on, in the sublime harmony of its nature. 

Although every American feels the influence of the con- 
stitution, we are apt on this anniversary, to ascribe the en- 
tire glory of our present condition, to the patriots of '76. 
We overlook the stern combat fought by the statesmen of '87, 
not against foreign assault, but intestine discord. Not with 
weapons of steel, amidst the exciting scenes of mortal strife, 
but with the armament of reason, against the insidious at- 
tacks of selfish ambition. 

It would be useless at this time to analyse that great in- 
strument. To illustrate its value ; to set forth the deep wis- 
dom which pervades it. To show its wonderful adaptation to 



17 

the necessities of the country and the character of the peo- 
ple. To prove that its efficacy can never be impaired, how- 
ever numerous the subjects of its action. It is nevertheless 
proper on this occasion, having just entered upon the sec- 
ond half century of national existence, while we exult 
over the prosperity it has caused, to recognize the merits of 
its framers and the power of that national spirit which sus- 
tained them in the formation of an empire. 

When the project for this second revolution was first se- 
riously entertained, there were few hopes of success. 

Great Britain, though bound by the treaty of 1783 to re- 
hnquish the western posts, still retained them, while the arts 
of her agents, sanctioned by her cabinet, excited the Indians 
to murderous incursions on the frontiers. Spain occupied 
New Orleans ; embarrassed or prevented the navigation of 
the Mississippi, and was daily encroaching on our territory 
on its banks, aiming to obtain by fraud what she dared not 
seize by force. She too instigated the Indians to attack the 
frontier settlers in the South, and thus the whole country, 
from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, was kept in constant 
alarm. 

The pride of England had not recovered from the morti- 
fication of her recent defeat. Though she received our en- 
voy with politic condescension, yet she would scarce notice 
our complaints of her continued violation of the treaty, pe- 
remptorily declined commercial arrangements and contemp- 
tuously omitted to send us a representative. Her people dis- 
satisfied with their government for the loss of the colonies, 
clamored loudly against the ministry, and were daily in large 
numbers migrating to America. To quiet the nation, to 
reconcile it to its loss, and to prevent emigration, a profligate 
press, paid and controlled by the cabinet, poisoned the pub- 
lic mind with gross libels on the United States. It asserted 
that tumults and anarchy, bankruptcies and distress, discon- 
tent and civil war prevailed throughout the Union ; that the 
nation was heartily wearied of its Independence, and that 



18 

the universal sentiment of intelligent minds, as well as of the 
mass of population, favored an immediate return to the vas- 
salage of her King. 

Our own honored City, was the object of peculiar malig- 
nity. Its part in the revolution rankled in the Enghsh mind, 
and the shafts of hatred were sped against it with unmeas- 
ured violence. No assertion was too absurd. " These Bos- 
tonians," said one newspaper,* "are the most insolent, most 
" sanctified and most treacherous set of beings that ever 
" degraded humanity. Their treachery is proverbial in 
"every part of America. As to their sanctity, it is so glar- 
" ingly besmeared with hypocrisy, that it is enough to make 
"a man sick of all pretensions to religion!" Even such 
rank nonsense was favorably received.! 

*St. James Chronicle, 1785. 

tBoston seems to have been an early object of premeditated persecution, as 
tlie following anecdotes tend to prove. 

" When the duties to be paid in America on paper, paint, and glass, were 
" repealed, it was pretended that the Tea duty (which iiad been imposed by 
"the same Act of Parliament) was left standing to serve the Company. But 
" this was not the fact. The tax was left unrepealed to preserve the right, 
'•" as it was called, to tax the colonies. That was the true motive. The ser- 
" t'ice of the East India Company made no part of the consideration. The 
" tea sent to Boston was that sort called Bohea, which was conferring no fa- 
" vor on the Company, but the reverse -, for that sort of tea was no burden to 
" the Company. It was the sort called Singlo, which lay heavy on their 
" hands, and of which all their warehouses were full. But the resolution was 
"was agreed to in a. private committee, when only three persons were pres- 
" ent : Mr. Bolton was chairman. A matter of such importance ought to 
" have been agitated in a full Committee, which consists of eleven. The 
" truth is, the Bohea was more saleable than the Singlo; it was therefore 
" the resolution of the Cabinet to send the most saleable : presuming that the 
" temptation to purchase being greater by the offer of good tea, than by the 
" offer of an inferior sort, some of the Americans might be thereby induced to 
" barter liberty for luxury, and, perhaps, a schism might be created among 
"them." " When the Directors" (oftheE. I. Company) "were informed 
" of the conduct of the Committee, they explained this distinction of the tea to 
" the Ministry and wished to have the Singlo substituted. But the Ministry 
" would not consent. It was again objected to, at the Minister's house. To the 
" last application. Lord JVorth, being perhaps wearied with representations on 



19 



The general enthusiasm which, on the peace, had greet- 
ed this country from the Continent, was at first cooled, and 
■then converted to contempt. The unceasing repetition and 
unscrupulous audacity of these slanderous tales terminated 
investigation and quieted doubt. All Europe was deceived. 
It regarded as incontrovertible truths, assertions with no bet- 
ter foundation than the virulent animosity of mortified min- 
isters. Educated individuals, whose connection with the 
country should have rendered them incredulous, were equally 
deceived. When Dr. Franklin left France, apprehensions 
for his safety were expressed by his friends. They feared 
the populace would stone him on his arrival in America, be- 

" the subject, said — '^ 'It was to no purpose making objections, for the * 

" would have it so. These were his Lordship's words ; and he added " That 

" the * meant to try the question with America." 

"The tea was consigned to the Governor's son at Boston. When the ves- 
" sels with the tea arrived there, the people assembled on the wharves in 
" great multitudes, in order to prevent the tea being landed. Several mer- 
" chants, and other persons of the first consequence in Boston, solemnly assured 
" Captains of the vessels, that the inhabitants of the town were unanimously 
" resolved not to suffer the tea to be landed. The Captains finding this oppo- 
" sition, solicited the Governor's permission to return to England ; for the 
" King's ships were stationed in such a position at the mouth of the harbor 
" that no vessel could escape their vigilance. The Governor answered, that 
" he could not permit them to depart, until they had obtained proper clearan- 
" ces. The officers of the Customs refused to grant clearances until their 
" cargoes were landed. This legal precision was not observed at the other 
" ports in America, when the Captains finding they could not land their car- 
" goes of tea, were permitted to return to Europe, without breaking bulk. 
" But Boston seems to have been the place fixed upon to try the question. If 
" the Governor had assisted the Captains, the tea might have been landed 
" without much difficulty : it might have been put into the barges of the men 
"of war then lying there, and being escorted by the marines, it might have 
"been safely landed in the King's warehouses. But the design was other- 
" wise. The Captains were obliged to connive at the destruction of the tea, 
" in order to obtain their clearances, to return to England. The town was 
" afterwards punished for this act of necessity, which might have been avoid- 
" ed. Thus the civil war was created — ' to try the question.' " Anecdotes 
of Challiam, vol. 2, ;jp. 240. 

*KioR. 



20 

cause they believed the people were enraged to madness, by 
his success in promoting and carrying through the revolu- 
tionary war. 

The credit of the nation was at the lowest stage of depre- 
ciation. The utmost skill of our financiers could scarce ne- 
gotiate a loan to suppress the interest of our foreign debt. 

The continued neglect of Congress, arising from its entire 
inability, to pay the amount due our creditors in France, cre- 
ated ill feeling throughout that country. This displayed it- 
self in the debates of the Assembly whose language was 
little calculated to gratify our national self-esteem. The 
comparatively small sum due the French officers, who, for 
some years, had not received even the interest of their claims, 
excited loud murmurs, which were soothed only by the mas- 
terly management of our minister resident, aided by the ex- 
ertions of La Fayette. These sources of discontent seemed 
at one time, to threaten the stability of our connection with 
those early friends, and to impeach the integrity of our mag- 
istrates and the justice of the nation. 

At home the prospect was worse than abroad. The pres- 
sure of war being removed, the country plunged at once into 
a vortex of extravagance. The elastic spirit of the people, 
no longer depressed by care, was hurrying them to ruin. It 
was deemed by an eminent statesman of the day, that not- 
withstanding the severity of domestic distress, the anxiety 
and labor of the conflict, and all the privations of the people, 
they enjoyed more peace of mind and real satisfaction, that 
they slept sounder and woke happier, while the contest raged 
around them, than while they were thus wasting their sub- 
stance in riotous living and rushing headlong into the gulf 
of hopeless insolvency. 

Commerce disappeared. Even the carrying trade be- 
tween the several States was usurped by British vessels. The 
avowed purpose of England was our commercial annihila- 
tion. No means existed to repair by industry the fortunes 
dissipated by folly. Treaties were either partially observed 



21 

or openly disregarded. Congress had lost its influence and 
its former shadow of power. The continual neglect of its 
recommendations had almost discouraged it from assembling. 
Individuals began to feel the slavery of debt and to set good 
faith at defiance ; while the insurrections in Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire proved that if anarchy was not already 
arrived, its approach might be daily expected. 

This glance at the condition of the country renders it not 
surprising that opinions were unanimous as to the necessity 
of an immediate revolution. It shows how complete and 
radical a change was required, and some of the difficulties 
encountered by those undertaking to efl^ect it. 

A slight inspection of the old fabric of confederation de- 
monstrated that any time spent in repairing so badly con- 
trived and ill jointed a structure, would be utterly wasted. 
It showed the necessity of pulhng it down, of erecting a new 
building with a broader foundation and enlarged capacity, 
possessing improvements more suited to convenience and 
comfort, and of discarding even the materials of the other, 
except where they were uninjured by decay or where the 
skill of the architects might remodel them to advantage. 

This resolution taken, the struggle commenced ; equally 
important with the struggle of the war, but infinitely more 
complex in its nature. 

Beyond the conviction that a revolution was required to 
save the country, the sages who formed the Constitution had 
scarce a sentiment in common. Patriotism was indeed 
their ruling passion. Honor their breath of life. They 
ranged themselves under the leader who had so often carried 
their armies to triumph, and who now was to aid them in 
the preservation of that Independence, his virtue and genius 
had achieved. 

But local attachments, sectional feeUng, utter dissimilarity 
in modes of life and habits of thinking, promised no pros- 
perous termination of their labors. 

Lapse of time, it is true, had much effaced the distinctive 



22 

traits of character their various origin had engendered. 
But there still lingered amongst them, the pride of the Cav- 
alier, the vivacity of the Huguenot, the formality of the 
Quaker, the bigotry of the R,oman Catholic, the sternness 
of the Puritan and the frigid apathy of the German. 

Some were inclined to a monarchy ; others thought that 
" the only king of America should be he who rules and 
"and reigns in Heaven." Some deemed such an expedient 
the last to be tried. Others were deeply dyed in the demo- 
cracy of the day, which, fortunately, had not acquired the 
ofTensive rankness of its degenerate substitute. 

That national feeling which bends sectional interest to the 
welfare of the country, which elevates the name of Ameri- 
can far above any local appellation, which makes the Union 
the pride of each individual, had yet to be created. It could 
be thoroughly established only after a long and successful 
administration of the general government about to be erect- 
ed, had "rendered its authority venerable, and fortified it 
by habits of obedience." 

No means of generating this comprehensive patriotism 
had hitherto existed. Before the old French war colonial 
intercommunication was comparatively small. Each Prov- 
ince had its own government, and in that remoter period, 
when the strength of all was in the gristle, while they were 
alternately fighting with the savages, squabbling with their 
magistrates, and learning the first lessons of independence, 
each was too much absorbed by its own affairs, to meddle 
with its neighbors. 

Some attempts at confederations had indeed been made. 
The union of the New England colonies commencing in 
1643, and lasting forty years, opened the eyes of all to the 
advantage of connection. It was easy for these to join, be- 
cause there was much similarity in their laws, manners and 
religion, and a gi-eater community of interest than could be 
found elsewhere. 

Twenty two years before the Declaration of Indepen- 



23 

dence and thirty four years before the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, a convention of Delegates had assembled at Albany, 
by direction of the British Government. They proposed a 
general confederacy, and on the 4th July, 1754, promulgated 
the political axiom, that colonial existence depended on col- 
onial union. But that 4th of July was scarcely the harbin- 
ger of our present anniversary. The spirit of Independence 
had not then fully inspired the American soul. Local at- 
tachment and sectional jealousy exerted paramount influ- 
ence, and the plan proposed by the convention was rejected 
by every provincial Congress. So strong was the operation 
of colonial rivalry, that seven years afterwards, Dr. Frank- 
lin considered any union perfectly hopeless. 

The ten years controversy with Great Britain, preceding 
the Congress of 1776, had partially generated a national 
feeUng. The close contact into which the war had forced 
the discordant materials of the Colonies, fostered and in- 
creased it. But the innate tendency to repulsion, when this 
external force was finally removed, forbad the particles to 
cohere, was fast separating the mass and cooling the warmth 
its compression had excited. The national character, which 
can have no earlier date than the treaty closing the old 
French war, was far too feeble to soften prejudices imbibed 
at birth. State institutions. State manners and modes of 
thinking, local attachments, preferences and interests, influ- 
enced the minds of the Convention injuriously to the great 
object which assembled them. Several times they were 
about to dissolve in despair, but the good fortune of the 
country kept them together. 

Even now, cherished and honored as the name of Ameri- 
can citizen is to every American heart, glorying as the 
whole nation does in the splendor of the Union, sectional 
antipathies are displayed with dangerous distinctness. They 
show themselves in the press, speak out in personal collision, 
and clamor with threatening violence in national debates. 

These were not the only obstacles to be surmounted. A 



24 

government was not to be altered merely, but a new one to 
be created. A league of thirteen independent nations was to 
be formed and no parallel case was found as a guide. 

Local prepossessions were therefore not only to be over- 
come, but individual hopes to be sacrificed. Love of pow- 
er was to be mortified. Self esteem, " the spring of mo- 
"tion," was to be regulated by "reason's comparing bal- 
ance." Ambition would oftener be gratified, when each State 
could act for itself, than when all should be partially consoli- 
dated into one. The State Constitution more nearly affect- 
ed the personal happiness of its citizens, than the new one 
would ever be able to affect them. It operated more imme- 
diately on the concerns of private life, brought itself more 
directly into view, was more felt, more revered, more loved 
and better understood, than any general Constitution ever 
could be. But now the State Constitution was to be altered, 
curbed, controlled by the new power about to arise. State 
Sovereignty was to be somewhat "shorn of its beams ;" the 
personal distinction of great men to be impaired, numerous 
paths to office and honor to be closed, and a single road 
opened in the wilderness to the scattered occupants of a 
thousand avenues. 

In the war of Independence but a single object presented 
itself. It united all hearts. The eye of the nation was 
never withdrawn from it. No way w^as open for retreat. 
Independence must be gained. The British ffag must cease 
to wave over their battlements. The British lion must 
cease to roam in their forests and prey on the people. The 
whole national energy was directed to accomplish this result. 
If sometimes, when clouds of misery wrapped them in dark- 
ness, their hearts faltered with alarm, the blaze of some 
burning village darted a new light across their path ; the 
blood of some murdered family dropped its acid on their 
soul and stung them into madness. 

The devotion of the soldiers to their great commander, 
popular confidence in his integrity and talents, experience in 



25 

the wisdom of his plans, maintained the army in the ex- 
tremes of peril and disaster. The excitement of a campaign 
has a conservative influence on a military body, which acts 
amidst all their distresses. Loss of property, health and hfe, 
is never heeded, for 

"There is something of pride in the perilous hour, 
" What e'e'r be the sliape in which death may lower ; 
" For Fame is there to say who bleeds, 
" And Honor's eye on daring deeds. 

But when the patriots of 1787 commenced their labors 
they assembled in secret. The regard of an approving 
world was not upon them. No voice but that of duty, no 
commendation but that of conscience, cheered them onward. 
There were no medals to perpetuate the memory of the 
part which each one took in the victory their united prow- 
ess gained. No multitude to shout forth their names in 
grateful exultation. Nothing to reward their labors or stim- 
ulate their exertions, but the benignant smiles of that Om- 
nipotent Being, whose inspiration directed their thoughts. 

The Spirit of Independence triumphed again ! It over- 
came all obstacles. The variety of evils menacing the 
country were averted. Difference of personal opinion yield- 
ed to the importance of national quiet. Individual aspira- 
tions were immolated on the altar of Union. The narrow 
jealousy of sectional interest, fled from the nobler sentiment 
of American patriotism. National identity arose out of 
local discord. In the Constitution was reconciled that mul- 
tiplicity of contending interests apparently so inconsistent, 
that philosophers and statesmen through the world, pre- 
dicted a signal failure in any attempt to unite them. Well 
might each of those patriots have exclaimed, 

" Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignes, 
" Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas. 
*************** 

" Ore legar populi, perque omnia ssecula fama 



26 

The prosperity of the country, evinces the wisdom of the 
system. But who shall do justice to the self denial of its 
framers ; who shall rightly estimate that victory over them- 
selves, which was the price of each concession ? Mankind 
for the first time witnessed a civil revolution with no appeal 
to arms. They saw States obey the precepts of revelation, 
and practice the virtues of Christianity. They saw a whole 
people range themselves under the banner of law, and move 
from anarchy to order with no guide but virtue, and the 
unerring, invincible Spirit of Independence. 

Not solely to those who sanctioned the Federal Constitu- 
tion by their names, should its glory be ascribed. They, 
who, poising themselves on their personal character, dared 
dissent from some of its principles, are entitled to more 
gratitude than posterity has bestowed. 

Had the advocates of a stronger government succeeded 
in the Convention, had the President been invested with the 
useless tinsel of a regal title and the fatal brilliancy of royal 
authority, this anniversary would not now be hailed as the 
jubilee of freedom. 

If the Executive, rising above the darkness of faction, 
make the national interest his cynosure, experience has 
proved that liberty is not endangered by the energy of gov- 
ernment. 

But if descending from the elevation intended by the 
framers of the Constitution, he mingles in the turmoil of 
political contest, placing himself first, his party next, and 
his country the last in his thoughts, experience has equally 
proved that tyranny may be concealed in republican robes. 

The opponents of the Constitution distrusted human vir- 
tue. They foresaw that the " golden sceptre" of Executive 
authority, might become '•' an iron rod to bruise and break" 
the disobedient. They exerted their influence to diminish 
its power. Whether such apprehensions were founded in 
wisdom, modern experiment will be able to decide. The 
problem is yet unsolved, whether American freedom has 



27 

most to dread from the strength or weakness of the Federal 
head. Executive power has aheady proved a formidable 
foe to popular virtue, whether an invincible foe, coming 
events will shortly declare. 

However mistaken the opponents of the Constitution may 
have been in the extent of their objections, their opposition 
lowered the high tones of those who desired more energy in 
the government. It is well that the ultraism of neither par- 
ty prevailed, but were the Executive stronger, republican- 
ism in this age, would be in danger of dissolution. 

The minority of the Convention had a large, if not a 
principal share in the compromise it eftccted. The Spirit 
of Independence animated their souls. It raised them 
above personal considerations. It led them to sacrifice at 
the shrine of their country, the reward of long and success- 
ful toil for its welfare. If few in number, greater their 
praise. The cause of opposition was to them the cause of 
truth. They fearlessly maintained it ; 

" And for the testimony of truth have boine 

" Universal reproach, far worse to bear 

" Than violence ; for this was all their care 

" To stand approv'd in sight of God, though worlds 

" Judg'd them perverse." 

The revolution which one hundred years before the era 
of the American Constitution, placed William and Mary on 
the throne of England, has been extolled as a wonder of 
political history ; but the splendor of the archetype fades be- 
fore the greater glory of the copy. 

James the Second assumed the sceptre strong in the af- 
fection of his people. Though the melancholy fate of 
Charles the First had exposed the absurdity of regal infalli- 
bility, they saw in his son the moral phenomenon of a prince 
who never broke his word. Their loyalty always exerting 
instinctive strength, was fortified by respect. While they 



28 

honored the King they loved the individual, and confident- 
ly anticipated, under his guidance, a prosperous career. 

Even after he had proved himself no exception to his 
race ; after he had recklessly rent asunder those ties of re- 
spect and affection ; after he had abused the generous con- 
fidence of his subjects ; interfered, without pretext, in cor- 
porate elections, and filled places of trust with tools of 
superstition ; even after he had seized the revenue, threat- 
ened the national religion, immured in the tower the digni- 
taries of the church, even then the nation might have sub- 
mitted to his usurpations, had the ruthlessness of the despot 
been supported by the courage of a man. His own pusillan- 
imity wrought his downfall, and he fled in dismay from the 
spirit he had raised. 

In the revolution of 1688, pubhc sentiment was directed 
to a single point. The policy of the nation preserved its 
accustomed course. There was no new Constitution to 
form. The old one possessed the affection of the people 
and was revered as a well known, long-tried friend. No 
sacrifice was demanded. Inclination coincided with policy. 
Technical anarchy might indeed be said to have existed 
while the Convention debated the grave question of suc- 
cession, but government moved on by its own momentum, 
and before this was dissipated, a new power was applied to 
preserve its progress. The channels of business were never 
varied, and the mass of the community bestowed scarce a 
thought on the change when once it was made. An ener- 
getic prince had lifted his banner on the English shore, and 
maintained by his arms, the stand taken by the country. 
The miserable cowardice and blind infatuation of the mon- 
arch, alone prevented a greater efi'usion of blood. 

The scene presented one hundred years afterwards, was 
of a far different aspect. When the Federal Constitution was 
adopted, real anarchy existed, yet no aspiring ambition aim- 
ed at a throne. No army was near to lend its iron argu- 
ments to such a claim. Tiie entire policy of the country 



29 



was subverted. The new government unsupported by ex- 
perience, depended solely on the intelligent firmness of pur- 
pose, the unyielding independence of the people. No great- 
er affection could be felt for it, than for a welcome stranger 
who promised much, but whose capacity to perform had yet 
to be tested. Even the great man, who by the resplendent 
wisdom of his administration, did so much toward the sta- 
bility of the government, who placed a civic wreath upon 
his brow, more radiant in glory than the glittering diadem 
of military success, was thought by some to lack confidence 
in its permanence, and to believe that it would finally de- 
generate into a constitutional monarchy. 

What care shall be deemed excessive, what caution pro- 
nounced superfluous, in guarding the integrity of this mag- 
nificent structure ? Founded on the sacrifices of our early 
patriots, it was reared by the inspired wisdom of their suc- 
cessors. In its sacred proportions behold the holy temple 
of this chosen people, which honor and patriotism bind them 
to keep from desecration. It stands upon the lofty emi- 
nence of National Union and overlooks the whole country in 
its simple grandeur. Liberty and Law are its columns of 
durability and strength. There let the affection of this new 
Israel be forever concentred. By all their present prosperi- 
ty, by gratitude for the past and expectation for the future, 
let them save it from pollution. To that let the steps of 
faith be turned, to offer its morning and evening sacrifice of 
political devotion. Should false gods seduce the allegiance 
of the people, there, upon its consecrated altar, on the day 
of their great national festival, let them lay their offering of 
expiation. 

Notwithstanding the advantages reahzed under the Con- 
stitution, complaints are rife as to the inefficiency of the 
government. 

They who suffer from fluctuating policy and constant 
change of laws, who find their most careful calculations 
foiled, their hopes frustrated and their future prospects 



30 

wrecked, rail at the system as unsuited to the ends for which 
it was devised. 

They too whose peace is disturbed, whose reputation is 
injured by the hcentious attacks of some profligate partisan, 
who find even home insecure from his lawless visitations, 
that family and friends and all most prized, are involved in 
common and unsparing vituperation, bewail the nature of 
institutions which tolerate and require an inquisition so 
severe. 

Nowhere does party spirit rage with more uncurbed vio- 
lence than in this land of freedom. Nowhere does pohti- 
cal hostility so nearly approach to personal enmity. No- 
where is it felt with such sad bitterness, in private and so- 
cial relations ; nowhere has it so often poisoned the foun- 
tain of domestic enjoyment. 

Hence some doubt the benefit of a system of which such 
are the results. They are led to believe that our fathers 
overrated the probable virtue of posterity ; that goodness 
dechnes as intelligence increases, and is most deficient 
when circumstances call most loudly for its presence. 

Defects in the operation of the system of which its framers 
never dreamed, have indeed been developed by experience. 
They result from no inherent, irremediable imperfection, 
but from an unfortunate perversion of its powers. 

The fertility of our institutions is too conspicuously 
shown on the statute book. Legislation is guided by no 
fixed rule: like the restless ocean, it contains within itself 
the principles of perpetual motion. The enactment of this 
year is almost sure to repeal that of the last, and laws ap- 
pear to be made only to be changed. Yet this should not 
weaken our affection for the system, nor diminish our reli- 
ance on its value. 

In this happy country, where all avenues to office and 
honor are freely opened, where genius and industry en- 
counter no artificial barriers of birth, rank or wealth, to 
stay their progress to the highest stations, the serious busi- 



31 

ness of legislation is sometimes committed to those whose 
ambition outstrips their skill. As every man may be called 
upon to minister at the altar of public concerns, he is mor- 
ally, as well as politically, bound to qualify himself for the 
duty. We deride that feature of the English Constitution 
which recognizes the existence of hereditary lawgivers, as if 
statesmanship came by nature, and rank supplied the place 
of mind ; yet in republican America, where every man has 
an inherent right to share in the councils of the country, 
the necessity of preparation is sometimes overlooked. 

Growing and perpetually varying interests, require cor- 
responding legislation. Better that innovation should some- 
times be rash, that the giant strides of reform should occa- 
sionally crush the flowers of the field, as well as the weeds 
of the wilderness, than that both should flourish in the rank 
luxuriance of uncultivated nature. 

Violence of party spirit naturally arises from that exuber- 
ant freedom which characterizes America as the freest spot 
on earth. Politics enter more largely into the pursuits and 
thoughts of men, under our form of government, than under 
any other, except perhaps, of old, under the petty democra- 
cies of ancient Greece. No one, however far inclination 
may remove him from the great concerns of the country, 
can fail to be affected by its policy. The General Govern- 
ment would be of httle value to the nation and perhaps 
could not exist, if the interests committed to its care, were 
embarrassed by matters, which, though of less apparent 
magnitude, are equally important to the welfare of the peo- 
ple. Upon the State Governments the General Govern- 
ment rests, as the whole have for their common basis the 
mass of population. 

Hence the necessity of every man's mingling more or less 
in politics. Hence the interest he must feel in local or gen- 
eral affairs. Hence too, the moral obligation under which 
he lies, to use his constitutional power at every election, 
whatever the relative importance of the occasion wiiich de- 



32 

mands it. He is no good citizen who habitually withholds 
his vote, and he is still a worse one, who adds to his ex- 
ample the authority of his precept. 

But in affairs of government, as in all human concerns, 
virtuous inclinations are lamentably liable to be biased by 
impulse. Pride of opinion largely mingles in all matters 
where great interest is excited, and in none more than in 
political discussion. Contention increases obstinacy. In- 
terest blinds judgment. Disputes concerning the wisdom 
of measures, soon become arguments against the uprightness 
of motives, and the battle is waged for the pleasure of tri- 
umph. 

So long as 

" lust and rapine wildly reign, 



" To darken o'er the fair domain" 

of the human heart, so long as man shall not have learned 
to regulate the impetuosity of his nature, by the rules of re- 
ligion, so long will party strife be excessive, wherever he is 
free to think, and unrestrained in the expression of his 
thoughts. 

Prevalence of party strife is no argument against the val- 
ue of the system. Party rancor must be deprecated, and 
good men should seek by their influence, to mitigate its 
rage. But unfortunate for this country will it be, when the 
political atmosphere shall cease from commotion and as- 
sume the deadly calm of apathy. Even as nature 

" subsists by elemental strife 

" And passions are tlie elements of life," 

SO party discussions, arising from party opposition, are the 
elements of political life, which once stagnated by unnatu- 
ral rest, it may be difficult to reanimate. 

Too much steadiness in government is more fatal to free- 
dom, than licentiousness of faction. Too much uniformity 



33 

more injures the energy of the people, than any fluctuation 
of poUcy, can palsy their enterprise. Extremes are to be 
avoided if the full measure of prosperity is desired, but bet- 
ter any condition than that of perfect repose. 

Whatever defects may be discovered in the sacred edi- 
fice of the Constitution, it is the sole hope of national exist- 
ence. Experience will suggest, as it hitherto has suggested, 
salutary improvements. We may enlarge its capacity, alter 
its shape and vary the duties of its officers, but once sub- 
verted, no human power can rebuild it. If Israel separate 
from Judah, if the letter of the law be disregarded, its 
spirit despised, and its holy places defiled, this chosen peo- 
ple, now the envy of the world, will be carried into a hope- 
less captivity of discord and disorder. No friendly aid will 
rear again their magnificent temple : no pious hand raise 
its sacred altar ; no incense in their holy city, rise from a 
grateful, reunited people. 

Sectional interests have assumed a magnitude, and are 
maintained with a pertinacious bitterness, which, were the 
Constitution overturned, would bafile all attempts to recon- 
cile them. 

Would the mighty West, with its unlimited resources 
and boundless prospect of future grandeur, which already 
sees approach a preponderating influence in the national 
councils, would the West yield up the public domain, 
which even now she seems ready almost lawlessly to grasp ? 
Would her elder sisters, by whose toil and treasure it was 
won, consent to relinquish their birthright ? 

Would the North, which once wisely yielding to a policy 
it could not control, build up under the shadow of the pro- 
tecting system, the numberless manufacturing towns which 
deck its surface, agree to diminish the power of Congress 
over commerce ? Would the South join the Union unless 
that power were restrained ? 

Would the large States, whose number and relative im- 
portance have, within fifty years, so wonderfully increased. 



34 

whicJi constantly augment in resources and start into life, 
would they again sacrifice a portion of their influence, from 
disinterested regard to their feebler sisters? Would these 
place their existence at the mere mercy of their powerful 
neighbors ? 

Under the Constitution, even during the short time it has 
preserved the nation in happy and prosperous Union, liow 
many questions have arisen of which each agitated the 
States to their centre ! Many more, yet unimagined, will 
arise hereafter, and all the force of individual interest, local 
dogmas and sectional prejudice, will be used in the process 
of solution. The limits of direct taxation ; the power over 
commerce ; the authority of Congress over the militia ; the 
innumerable questions as to its implied powers, which as 
the country increases in size, and its affairs acquire still 
greater complexity, must also augment in number ; the 
questions more directly affecting State sovereignty ; the ex- 
tent of the prohibition on ex post facto laws, and laws im- 
pairing the obligation of contracts ; the right to control or 
interfere with the general laws, and many more which rea- 
dily present themselves ; all of which, so far as they liave 
arisen, by a happy adjustment, have strengthened the 
Union, and while on the one hand, they have consohdated 
the nation, on the otlier have more clearly defined the lim- 
its of State authority, should a new Constitution be attempt- 
ed, would be elements of discord no human wisdom could 
bring together. 

If the South become independent of the North ; if the 
West, uncontrolled by the Union, be free to follow its un- 
regulated impulse ; if that national spirit, which conviction 
of common welfare has reared into vigorous existence, be 
crushed by a ruthless destruction of the Constitution which 
preserves it, then in vain would experience bring repent- 
ance for the deed. In vain would years of internal war- 
fare, and decaying industry, and foreign interference, and 
foreign domination, teach the value of our former condition. 



35 

Any one of these questions would forbid a reunion. How- 
ever the necessity of a common government might then be 
felt, it would require greater sacrifices than humanity could 
make. 

With this result as the cost of separation, who shall ven- 
ture to calculate the value of the Union ? 

Philanthropy urges us, freedom adjures us to discourage 
the sacrilegious attempt. They beseech us to repress the 
exuberance of sectional feeling ; to subject all natural at- 
tachment for local institutions, to an expanded affection for 
the country ; to preserve in immortal purity the Spirit of 
Independence. 

Massachusetts stands, as she always has stood, preemi- 
nent among the States of the Union. 

From the moment our new-born Commonwealth, the 
child of its Pilgrim fathers, in the nakedness and feebleness 
of infancy, was cradled on Plymouth rock, till this day of 
her time honored glory, the Spirit of Independence has 
cheered her on her course. 

In arts and arms, in enterprise and morals, in the con- 
stant struggles of colonial weakness, in the trying conflicts 
of revolutionary war, against the daring assaults of ambition 
and the treacherous stratagems of faction, the inspiration of 
the national spirit, has given her the lead. 

The first free school and the first newspaper in America, 
were established in her Capital, our own venerated city ; 
the first printing press was erected in the old Bay State : 
the first University was founded by her Legislature : the 
first militia corps was organized by her sons ; the first canal 
and the first rail-road in the United States, found place within 
her honored territory ; but more than all and above all, on 
this day to be remembered, the first blood of the Re- 
volution flowed from the bosoms of her children. 

What son of Massachusetts does not exult in her reputa- 
tion ? In whose breast beats so recreant a heart, that he 
will not scorn to degrade it ? Who can read with calm in- 



ffft. 



difference the tale of her early privations, her generous de- 
votion to the cause of freedom ? Who can view the ex- 
tended influence of her institutions and liabits, her manners 
and morals, her unwavering firmness and unblemished in- 
.tegrity, and not thank God that he is a descendant of the 
Pilgrims ? 

Upon Massachusetts, thus distinguished, rests an im- 
mense responsibility. She has sustained it well. She gives 
no indication of shrinking from the burden. She has ever 
taken the lead in that national spirit which unites us, she 
never can, she never will abandon her noble situation. 

Upon the Constitution then, let her affections be concen- 
trated. She first laid its foundation, let her be the first 
to defend the superstructure. She was amongst the fore- 
most in its dedication, let her perish rather than desert it. 
Let her glorious character invigorate her efforts to preserve 
the purity of the law. Let her children learn its value, and 
in all future vicissitudes of fortune, let the first words of 
political faith, which her young men shall be taught to ut- 
ter, and the last caution of political wisdom, which shall 
falter on the lips of age, be 

REVERENCE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNION. 



LIBRARY Uh UUiNuncoo 




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